10 to Remember: Spring 2013
June 25, 2013
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
Nine teams won their first MHSAA championships this spring. Birmingham Brother Rice's boys lacrosse team won its ninth in a row.
And those are only among the toppers of the long list that made memorable moments during this season's Finals, which finished up the school year two weekends ago.
Locking down the 10 most significant performances is impossible. But endeavoring to do so, here are one person's guess at those that will continue to be discussed most in the years to come.
Among those that just missed this list: Brother Rice boys lacrosse, St. Ignace's girls track and field team after winning its fourth straight team title, Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett's baseball team after its extra-innings Final win over Beal City, Grandville Calvin Christian's girls soccer team after winning a rematch of last season's Division 4 Final and Port Huron Northern's girls tennis team after it emerged from a loaded field to win the Lower Peninsula Division 1 title.
Sami Michell Shines Once More
In her final high school meet, Reed City senior Sami Michell won four more MHSAA Finals individual titles to finish her career with 12 – two more than the previous Lower Peninsula record. A year after becoming the second female to win four events at one Finals meet, she did so again by finishing first in the 100 and 300-meter hurdles, the 200 dash and the long jump. She scored 40 points to claim the team runner-up trophy for her school. Click to read more.
Best Class of All-Time?
That could be the argument for this season’s girls track and field seniors, as twins Hannah and Haley Meier and Erin Finn joined Sami Michell, Detroit Country Day's Kendall Baisden and a host of others in finishing their careers. The Meiers already are members of a national record-holding relay (which set its milestone in 2012), and Hannah won two more Division 1 individual titles (setting all-Finals records) while Haley placed in the same two races and joined her sister on two winning relays. West Bloomfield’s Finn, considered as well one of the nation’s top high school distance runners, finished third to the Meiers in the Division 1 1,600 before cutting nine seconds off her 2012 time in setting an all-Finals record in the 3,200. Click to read more.
Warriors Earn First Title for Winning Coach
Bay City Western’s baseball team strung together two 1-0 shutouts by pitchers Brett Adcock and then Connor Foley to claim its first MHSAA baseball championship – and the first to go with coach Tim McDonald’s other 563 wins over the last 21 seasons. The 1-0 championship game victory over Brother Rice was Western's 35th straight of the season; Western finished 42-2. Click to read more.
Gull Lake Soccer Makes Mark
Richland Gull Lake hadn’t played in a girls soccer Final since 1999, but survived two overtimes against reigning champion Bloomfield Hills Marian to win the Division 2 championship game 1-0. The title was Gull Lake’s first since 1992 and came against a program that not only won in 2012, but three of the last five Division 2 championships. Click to read more.
Upper Peninsula Ace Shoots Record Round
Snow and rain put a damper on a good portion of the girls golf season in the Upper Peninsula this spring. But no U.P. female golfer has ever finished as strongly as Marquette’s Avery Rochester. She claimed her second straight individual Finals championship with a U.P. Finals-record 69, which was three under par at Portage Lake Golf Course in Houghton. Her score also was just one more stroke than the all-Finals record of 68 shot by Grandville’s Stacy Snider in 1998. Click to read more.
7 ... 2 ... 1 ... Champion Tecumseh
Tecumseh entered the MHSAA Tournament after finishing the regular season an honorable mention in the Division 2 softball coaches poll. But the Indians defeated No. 1 Stevensville Lakeshore in the Quarterfinal, reigning champion and No. 2 Livonia Ladywood in the Semifinal and No. 7 Saginaw Swan Valley in the Final to claim their first championship since 2008. Click to read more.
Bishop Foley Sets Baseball Bar
Madison Heights Bishop Foley claimed its third straight Division 3 baseball championship to become the first in MHSAA baseball history to win that many consecutive titles. Bishop Foley is 112-8-1 over the last three seasons and finished 35-2-1 this spring. The Ventures outscored their Bailey Park competition by a combined 18-5 over Finals weekend – getting junior Garrett Schilling to 15-0 for this season and 31-0 for his career with a 6-0 Semifinal win. Click to read more.
Done Deal for Dundee
The Dundee softball team eliminated two-time reigning champion Clinton on the way to Bailey Park this spring, and then beat three-time champion Unionville-Sebewaing in the Division 3 Final to claim its first MHSAA championship in the sport. In the process, Dundee finished 45-1 – setting an MHSAA record for wins in a softball season. Click to read more.
Troy Moves Up to No. 1
After two-straight Division 1 runner-up finishes, Troy earned its first girls soccer championship since 2003 with a 2-1 Final win over Grandville. The Colts had been outscored a combined 3-0 in the last two MHSAA Division 1 Finals, and began this season 3-6-2 before rattling off 15 wins and a tie on the way to claiming the championship. Click to read more.
Tie-Breaker After Heart-Breaker
The Battle Creek Lakeview boys golf team had finished one stroke behind Birmingham Brother Rice at the 2012 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final, and found itself tied with Plymouth this month after the final round was complete. But thanks to a fifth-player tie-breaker, Lakeview claimed its first MHSAA championship since 2008. Click to read more.
Anchored By Current Star, Dedicated to Past, Stoney Creek Surges Late for D1 Win
By
Perry A. Farrell
Special for MHSAA.com
June 17, 2023
EAST LANSING – Rochester Hills Stoney Creek’s MHSAA Division 1 girls soccer championship battle against Hudsonville was expected to be a low-scoring, high-energy battle Saturday afternoon at DeMartin Field.
It lived up to the billing – and for the Cougars, so much more.
Stoney Creek scored two goals over the final 8 minutes, 41 seconds, both from reigning Miss Soccer Award winner Lilley Bosley, to claim the title with a 2-1 victory.
Bottled up for most of the game, Bosley – headed next to Michigan – bounced in a rebound with 1:49 left to stun the Eagles. It was her 52nd goal of the season.
“We’ve been waiting for this,’’ said Bosley. “We worked in practice on switching the field on the long balls. We recognized on film that they over-shift a lot, and they’re very ball-oriented. That score came off us switching the field. We had a diagonal ball, and then I got our momentum going.’’
Hudsonville (19-3-2) shadowed Bosley all afternoon, including with freshman Lauren Moylan – who was fantastic as a defender and playmaker.
“You put (Bosley) in the midfield, but they had that girl marking her the whole time,’’ said Stoney Creek coach Bryan Mittelstadt. “They had a couple behind her. We had to move her around a little bit to get her more active. We pushed her up a little bit higher. We dropped her a little higher and put her on the left. We tried to mess up their shape a little bit. She puts herself in places where she can be effective.’’
On her winning goal, Bosley said: “We scored a lot of our goals on set pieces. We have really good corner takers. Ava Avripas and Kaeli Butcher are fantastic on the corners. They are very accurate. We knew that we were going to get on the end of one of the corners to score.
“I really thought (today) I had more space than I normally do.’’
Senior defender Lily Solek was playing for the family’s second soccer title, and with her teammates was driven by the memory of her older sister who starred for the Cougars the first time they won it all.
Emily Solek scored the only goal in Stoney Creek’s championship win over Canton on June 17, 2016 – the same date as this victory, seven year ago. A multi-sport standout for the Cougars, Emily Solek died in 2020 after a car crash.
“I had two sisters on that team,’’ said Lily Solek. “Today would have been Emily’s 24th birthday. This means so much. Seven years to the day she scored the winning goal in PK for our state title.’’
Said Bosley: “Lily is my best friend. We’ve been together since little kids. We dedicated this to Emily. It was seven years to the day. With this being her birthday, it just makes it so much better.’’
The Cougars (26-1-1) had defeated top-ranked Rochester High, No. 12 Utica Eisenhower and No. 15 Saline during its run. Hudsonville advanced with wins over No. 2 Northville and No. 7 Portage Central, and hadn’t given up a goal in the playoffs before Bosley’s first Saturday.
Eagles coach Holly VanNoord was a record-setting keeper a decade ago at Unity Christian, which won the Division 3 title Friday, and Hudsonville High also had closed the regular season with a 1-1 draw against her alma mater.
There was plenty of action Saturday but no scoring until senior Raeleigh Woodwyk (playing next at Grand Valley State) booted in a rebound off a shot by Moylan that hit the crossbar to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead 12 minutes into the game.
Stoney Creek’s Madeline McGinlay did her best to tie the score with 15 minutes remaining in the first half, but her shot was deflected over the net.
Junior keeper Reid DeGoede was brilliant for Hudsonville during the first half, and all-state senior Clara Feenstra, next playing at Hope College, took over to start the second and blocked a shot off a centering pass that seemed destined to score.
Bosley finally got loose and tied the game at 1-1 with 8:41 to play off an assist from Megan Kennedy.
PHOTOS (Top) Stoney Creek’s Lily Solek (8) moves the ball upfield during Saturday’s Division 1 Final. (Middle) Hudsonville’s Raeleigh Woodwyk (9) celebrates her goal. (Below) The Cougars’ Laura Palmer (14) and Jessica Kennedy celebrate. (Photos by Adam Sheehan/Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)